10 iconic Glastonbury moments

47 years is quite some time for festival to be running. As you'd expect, Michael Eavis' Glastonbury has created memories that'll last forever in that time.

It's gone from being a humble, 1500-capacity party with free milk to over 175,000 people descending on Worthy Farm for music, entertainment and all sorts of madness across 30 areas.

There's not many festivals that can say their headliners range from The Kinks to Kanye West and it's that for that reason, along with many others, of why there's no place quite like it.

With that in mind, we've condensed the magic of the festival into 10 iconic moments. Read them below.

Funster is Mixmag's Deputy Digital Editor, follow him on Twitter

Dave Turner is Mixmag's Digital News Editor, follow him on Twitter

Much like the big bang, or the evolution of man, or even the invention of the wheel, every great thing had to start somewhere and for Glastonbury Festival it all kicked off back in 1970. In terms of music, there weren’t a great deal of big names. T.Rex headlined which is pretty big, but it was more a gathering of free spirits who in turn made the festival everything it’s become today. One thing worth mentioning is how much it actually cost revellers to go to the festival. Most new festivals now start small and open with a gambit of between £80-£100 but not Glasto, oh no. The first Glastonbury festival cots £1. Yep, a quid. Nowadays you can’t even get a small coconut water for £1 let alone entry to a festival. Michael, as we always have, we salute you. Funster

'89: the year of the Second Summer of Love and a shit load of tunes containing the unmistakable squelch of the Roland TB-303. Yep, acid house was taking over the UK, ecstasy was fuelling illegal parties up and down the country and monstrous soundsystems were riling up local residents of where the raves took place. Obviously these systems had to go to Glastonbury and they went there in style. Acid house beats reigned and the volume was said to rival that of some of the main stages. Maybe that was a problem that led them to being banned these days. DT

It's almost unimaginable to think that, once upon a time, Glastonbury didn't have an area catered towards dance music. These days you can catch DJs playing in every corner of the festival, but it wasn't until 1995 that ravers were given a place to get fully stuck in. Massive Attack, Carl Cox, Kenny Larkin and Plastikman were among the inaugural line-up and they clearly did a decent job as the Dance Tent was deemed a "major success" by the organisers. No longer just confined to one part of the festival, DJs are rolling it out across the whole site these days, from the incredible Block9 and Silver Hayes to The Beat Hotel and fire-breathing Arcadia. Let's have a little dance, shall we? DT

Can any band play the perfect set? Is it ever achievable? If Radiohead’s Glastonbury 1997 is anything to go by then yes, a band can play the perfect set. Having just released ‘OK Computer’, arguably their greatest composition to date, the UK pioneers took the album, and all their other classics to the Pyramid Stage for what’s been hailed as one of the best sets to ever be performed on the hallowed pitch. There are few words that can be used to describe how brilliant the late '90s incarnation of Radiohead were at Glastonbury, but luckily there’s a video of their set for you to look back and drool over. If anything, their set 20 years on, back on the Pyramid, will be the pick of everyone’s bunch come Friday night. Funster

2016 might have been the muddiest Glastonbury ever, causing all sorts of logistical nightmares, but a battle to tackle the mud in 1998 ended up in pretty grim circumstances. The dance tent was housing over six inches of mud, so organisers planned to suck some up with a toilet truck. The key thing here is making sure the correct setting is in place, what with there being a risk of human waste coming out to play. You'll know by now the setting was wrong, otherwise we wouldn't be telling this story. So, blow it did and the tent was covered in excretion. Luckily it was empty at the time, but it had to be closed for about 24 hours while it was disinfected. What a shit storm. DT

Note: the above image is not related to the event in '98

[Photo: Rachel Doherty]

In 2008, there was a lot of pre-match hype steeped upon Jay Z’s debut at the festival. Sure, it was a complete curveball from Eavis and co. to go with a hip hop headliner, the first in Glastonbury’s history, but his inclusion was made all the more interesting when Oasis’ Noel Gallagher slammed Jay Z before he even stepped on stage. “I’m not having hip hop at Glastonbury. It’s wrong,” he said.

And that was it, the spark was lit for what was to come. It wasn’t until Jay Z strolled onto the Pyramid Stage with a guitar wrapped around his shoulder did we realise that the pioneering rapper meant business. As soon as the chords to ‘Wonderwall’ fizzed around the stage, it was “gametime” as Zane Lowe described it. Jay Z sang along with the verse and chorus while the crowd backed him wholeheartedly. Sure his singing wasn’t great, in fact it was pretty weak, but it didn’t matter, it was a statement and after he’d won people over, he launched into ‘99 Problems’. Game. Over. Jay Z’s performance on the Pyramid has gone down as one of the greatest of all time. Try not look back in anger, Noel. Funster

In 2011, three years on from her hubby Jay Z’s headline slot on the Pyramid Stage, it was the turn of Queen B herself to show everyone how to perform a show. Beyoncé bossed the Pyramid Stage and she did it with love, happiness and a whole lot of sass. In a masterstroke move from Eavis and co., Bey was able to reel off every notable song in her discography. Opener ‘Crazy In Love’ was a retina-dazzling kick to the face, bringing out Tricky was a bit weird, but the Destiny’s Child Megamix? Wow, that was just too much. Anyone who was around in '90s to appreciate how epic Destiny’s Child were jumping for joy as B played all the bangers. 'Survivor', 'Independent Women' and 'Bootylicious' sent everyone in attendance wild and we’re not sure even Jay Z’s Oasis crowd-pleaser could have topped this. Funster

Every year, hundreds of tents, wellies and other festival essentials are left behind by Glasto-goers. Usually the boots find a new home at the festival's recycling centre, but 2015 - Glasto's 45th anniversary - saw them leave the country and go to Calais in France, where thousands of migrants were living in a camp dubbed 'the jungle'. More than 500 pairs of boots were transported alongside 2,000 brand new rain ponchos and first aid kits. Think about where your gear could go before chucking it away this year. DT

The Sonic Stage, located in Silver Hayes, celebrated its third birthday last year, dedicating the Friday to a whole host of grime and UK rap acts, a first for the festival. Dubbed 'Grime Day', the bill included the likes of Stormzy, Section Boyz and Nadia Rose, before headliner Kano rounded things off. With grime and rap still very much doing bits this year, Sonic's Friday will welcome the likes of AJ Tracey, 67 and Sian Anderson (pictured). We were there for a few acts last year and we had a right good time. You should try it. DT

Whether you’ve been to Glastonbury or not, there’s one thing that everyone knows about the festival and it’s not the music. It’s the mud, that fucking mud. It’s the difference between an enjoyable time and if you’ve all seen the pictures, you'll know how savage it looks. People diving in pools of thick gloopy hell, revellers dragging suitcases through bogs and 80 per cent of attendees genuinely trying not to fall over. 2016 took the piss, though, and Michael Eavis said that “in all 46 years, it hasn’t been as bad as this”. The rain fell and fell for weeks before the festival and, although there wasn’t a huge amount of rainfall during the event, the damage was well and truly done. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t clean but who gave a damn? No one. It’s Glasto, baby.